◊◊◊
Alan and I made our next stop at the Arby’s drive-through; we got roast beef sandwiches and seasoned curly fries since I was hungry again. I liked to dip the fries in the Horsey Sauce. The horseradish cleared my sinuses and gave the fries a zip in flavor. Alan said I was gross.
Once I’d filled up on diet-questionable food, we went to the school to talk to Coach Hope. We found the coaching staff in one of the conference rooms, arguing.
“We should just kick them off the team,” Moose bellowed.
“That’s too harsh. No one was hurt,” Coach Stevens countered.
“We don’t need them on the team if they’re going to do something like that to their teammates,” Moose countered.
On that happy note, Alan and I walked in.
“David, this is a closed meeting,” Coach Zoon barked at me.
I gave the man a hard look and then locked eyes with him. I think Coach Zoon was used to players just bowing to his wishes. I was team captain and took that position seriously. I pulled out a chair and sat down. Symbolically I had just told everyone I deserved a seat at the table.
“And yet you’re making a decision that affects the whole team, and I’m Team Captain. I’ve gone along with every decision that’s been made to this point, and I’ve been a team player,” I said as I looked right at Coach Hope to remind him of the bullshit that happened last year. “If you think for one minute I’ll stand by and allow you to kick my offensive line off of this team, you have another thing coming. I was lucky I wasn’t injured last year. I take that back. I WAS injured last year, yet I played through it, and we won State.”
I took a deep breath. I really didn’t want this to be confrontational. I wanted us to come to an agreement. To do that I needed to dial it back a little bit.
“Moose, I love you, man, but your solution is always to give up on kids. I believe in tough love. I think you all know who my mother is,” I said, and the ones who had been around for a while all nodded. “But from what I’m hearing, this was a one-time event and doesn’t rise to the level of kicking anyone off the team. Should they be punished? HELL, YES! It needs to be very public, in terms that the whole team needs to understand. Just make it clear it’s a team matter, so it doesn’t get outside the team. It also has to have consequences that are bad enough that it nips this type of stuff in the bud. I’m sure, with your background,” I said, pointing at Coach Zoon and Coach Hope, “you can come up with something appropriate that won’t actually kill them. It also pains me to say this, but if Tim and Jim were involved, they need to be removed as captains. Leaders don’t tear down their team.”
“You finished?” Coach Hope asked.
“Yes, sir,” I said.
“You trust me to take it from here?”
“Yes, sir,” I said, and left.
I was happy to see Alan didn’t get up. He’d fill me in later.
◊◊◊ Friday August 28
My supposed best friend refused to tell me what the coaches decided. I was in shock because this was Alan we were talking about. He was the biggest gossip this side of the Mississippi. I think he forgot who was his best friend since kindergarten and who helped him get his coaching job. Where did Alan get off thinking he could keep something like this from me? Actually, I was proud of him. His being nosy and having a big mouth were the two parts of his personality I really wished I could change.
So I was in the dark when we all went to warm up.
Coach Hope had us gather around.
“I deplore hazing. You might not believe me, with my military background and all that happens in boot camp. The difference is we need to get through to young kids and break down any misconceptions they may have, and then we build them into men. Everything in boot camp is done with that purpose in mind. Hazing is simply degrading because it serves no purpose.
“These are your teammates!” Coach Hope yelled, which startled everyone.
“I take responsibility for this,” he said, shocking me. “I should have made it clear this would never happen under my watch. I assumed the leaders on this team knew better.”
My face flushed red in anger, and Coach Hope caught himself.
“David, get up here,” he said, and I walked up front.
“I apologize. I shouldn’t have included you in my last statement. I want everyone to know that David took the time to talk to the coaching staff and remind us of a few things. I have a feeling if he hadn’t shown us his continued leadership, what I’m about to say may have been a lot worse. Jim and Tim, please step forward.”
They both came up front with grim expressions on their faces.
“I was reminded that leaders don’t tear their teammates down,” Coach Hope continued. “As of right now, you two are no longer team captains.”
They both nodded and turned to go back to where they had come from, but Coach Hope held them back. He then invited the rest of the line forward: Bryan, Brock, and Neil. Alan came forward with a Costco-size pickle jar with folded pieces of paper in it and ‘Punishment Jar’ written in permanent marker on the front.
“Each of you will pull a piece of paper, and then you’ll do the punishment as a group,” Coach Hope announced.
He held it out, and Jim went to pull the first one, but I stopped him.
“We’re a team. If one of us does it, we all do it,” I said, then reached in and pulled the first one.
I read it: ‘Five one-hundred-yard bear crawls.’
I looked at Coach Zoon and shook my head. I could tell everyone was unhappy that I’d included them in the punishment. I turned to Coach Hope and shook my head again.
“It says, ‘Take Cassidy Hope Out on a Date’!” I said with a straight face while pointing at Coach Zoon.
It took all of half a second for Coach Hope to figure out I was kidding. That half-second was all that saved me, or he would have caught me. It wasn’t fair when Coach ordered the team to help catch me. For some reason, we got an extra pull at the jar, but the somber mood had been broken.
We spent the morning session doing punishments, which turned out to be creative conditioning drills. I was right. Coach Zoon didn’t really try to kill us, but no one would ever get caught hazing anyone anytime soon, either!
◊◊◊ Saturday August 29
The HSAA allowed teams a certain number of practices before the first game. Since we’d skipped one, the coaches decided we would catch up on Saturday morning. The guys grumbled because this was the last Saturday before school started on Monday. Plus, it was an absolutely perfect summer day. Tracy had invited several of us to her lake house for the weekend.
Mom was poaching chicken breasts for me and had a plate of bacon on the table when I came in with Duke. I got a bowl out and started to prepare eggs while Dad made the coffee.
“Hey, I won’t be home tonight. I’m going to Tracy’s lake house.”
“Who all will be there?” Mom asked.
“Tracy invited the varsity cheerleaders and then some of the guys. It should be about twenty people,” I guessed.
“Will Mona be there?” Mom asked.
“She’s the head cheerleader, so I think she’s going. I haven’t talked to her, though.”
“I won’t allow it,” Mom said.
Both Dad and I stopped what we were doing and turned to see what the issue was. Neither one of us said a word, which was the Dawson way, but it pissed my mom off. She just gave me a black look and finished adding the seasoning for the chicken breasts. I looked at Dad, and he just shrugged. He wasn’t going to intervene.
“May I ask why?” I asked.
“Let’s see … I’m your mother, you live under my roof, you’ll abide by my rules,” she counted off on her fingers. “I’m not comfortable with my teenage son spending the night with his girlfriend.”
“Since when?” Dad asked.